PlayStation

"An excellent system with good hardware and a ton of great, and yet inexpensive, games"

The PlayStation was Sony's first try at the videogame console market, and succeeded beyond many people's expectations, including my own. Designed to compete with the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64, the PlayStation offered very good hardware and an incredibly large library of games from almost every major development studio. Because of the numerous advantages of the PlayStation, it quickly became not only the dominate system in the market, but also the best console of the previous generation.

There are two versions of the PlayStation, the first of which was a large, bulky grey console that was quite frankly, ugly. The second version, called the PSX or PSOne, was a much smaller white unit that about the size of Sega's old Game Gear and was almost small enough to fit into your pocket. Aside from being much smaller there were no differences in performance between the two versions in terms of game performance. Both models used the same memory cards and controllers, but used different AC adapters and video cables (both of which were included). The system was fairly sturdy, but like all electronics with CD drives, the laser could be misaligned if seriously mistreated or become dirty. However, the system can last for years if treated well and is capable of withstanding shock.

The best part about the PS1 hardware is the DualShock Controller, which is in my opinion better than any other controller made for a console or PC. The controller is shaped to fit into your hands perfectly, has a comfortable weight, build in rumble packs, and all of the buttons are placed exactly where they should be. Besides the standard directional pad and four buttons there are two analog sticks and four shoulder buttons. Perhaps the controller could have been improved by connecting the d-pad buttons and making it wireless, but it is still better than anything the competition or third party hardware manufactures released.

In terms of in game graphics, the PlayStation could produce visuals almost, but usually not quite, as good as the Nintendo 64 or Saturn, depending on the programming skills of the developer. With such a wide range of games, the PlayStation has a lot of really good looking games and a lot of really ugly ones as well. The biggest problem with the PS1 graphics was that the hardware did not have any anti-aliasing, which meant that many games had a lot of jaggies. The one advantage that the PlayStation (and Sega Saturn) had over the Nintendo 64 was that it could use Full Motion Videos (FMVs) since CDs were able to hold the massive video files while cartridges were too small. Many PS1 games use FMVs, and the best developers routinely produced stunning visuals with them, while only a couple of N64 games had them. Audio wise, the PlayStation was the better than anything else at the time because not only did it have CD quality sound, but some of the best composers created a couple of the most memorable soundtracks for PlayStation games. Like the FMVs, CD quality audio tracks take up a tremendous amount of space that could never fit on a cartridge, but were able to fit onto CDs.

The use of CDs and large audio and video files had three drawbacks. The first was that it took a noticeable amount of time to load data from the CD into the system memory. This was the first generation of consoles to have load times, and because the Nintendo 64 continued to use cartridges, games on that system still loaded almost instantly. At first this was a major pain since for the first time you had to sit around doing nothing as you waited for the game too load, however eventually you got used to it and accepted it as something that was unavoidable. Now all of the consoles have loading times, so it is even less of an issue.

A related issue was that if a game used too many FMVs and audio tracks, it would not fit onto a single disc. Games that spanned two or three discs were not uncommon, and a couple of games used four discs. This did not affect gameplay too much since (most) game designers were smart enough to make the disc change points during a lull in gameplay or at key points in the storyline (kind of like a “to be continued...”. Many games were also designed so you did not have to switch back and forth between the same discs like a lot of PC games did Instead you would just use each disc once and then you were done with it.

The third disadvantage of using CDs instead of cartridges is that CDs cannot be written to, so all game saves had to be stored on separate memory cards, all of which were sold separately. The memory cards were around $15 to $20 and each card could save 16 blocks worth of data. Games were generally around one block each, but two or three was not uncommon and a few games used five or more. This meant that you had three options: buy a lot of memory cards, get one third party card that stored more, or delete your game files when you're done the game. In terms of overall costs this isn't as bad as it seems, since CD based games costs so much less than cartridges you would end up saving money in the long run.

The drawbacks to CDs were minor nuisances (except perhaps needing memory cards) and were completely outweighed by the benefits, especially the reduced price. CDs are extremely cheap to produce compared to cartridges, and as a result were PlayStation games were the most inexpensive overall of any console of any generation. Games on the NES and Super Nintendo usually cost between $50 and $70, and Nintendo 64 games were just as costly. On the other hand PlayStation games (single and multidisc) were typically $30 to $40, with a small percent of them costing more than $40.

Not only were the PlayStation games inexpensive, but there was much more variety to the library than either the Nintendo 64 or Saturn had. While most of the top games on the 64 and Saturn were made by Nintendo and Sega or their 2nd party development studios, the PlayStation had great support from Sony, the companies they owned, and independent third parties. Most of the third parties that used to develop for Nintendo such as Capcom, Enix, Konami, and perhaps most significantly, Squaresoft began to focus heavily on the PlayStation. Sony and their 2nd party companies also produced several notable titles such as Syphon Filter, Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog), and Gran Turismo (Polyphony Digital).

There was not only a lot of games in each genre, but each genre had several fantastic games from a variety of different companies. The 64 and Saturn had a more limited numbers of really good games, most of which were produced by the same company that made the console. Role Playing Games became one of the most popular genres among PlayStation owners, and as a result the RPG library is one of the largest. If you liked console RPGs, then you had to have a PlayStation, period. The PS1 also had tons of sports, action, racing, shooting, and basically ever other type of game, as well.

Sony's decision to enter the console market had a wide range of repercussions on the videogame industry, the most significant of which is that the market became much larger as more gamers joined. Sony, along with Sega, also helped make discs the standard medium for games, which meant that games were a lot cheaper and had better graphics and audio. While the PlayStation was very progressive in many ways it could still have used certain improvements such as four controller ports or a built in storage device.

Despite its few shortcomings the PlayStation 1 was, and still is, a great console for many different reasons. Not only was the system supported by almost every major developer, not to mention countless smaller developing studios, but because games were so inexpensive you could easily build up a huge library games on a reasonable budget. Some of the best games ever made are on the PlayStation so you could have a very diverse library of high quality game without being limited to one or two companies' games.

When the PlayStation 2 came out the price of the PS1 dropped as well, and has continued dropping. Now a new PSOne only costs $50, which is the price of a single next-gen game and most games are only $20 new. Of course, since the PS2 is backwards compatible with almost every PS1 game, you could just get a PS2, and even further expands your gaming options, though it costs much more to do so. Some PS1 emulators do exist, but they generally do not play all games and the ones that they do play are slow and buggy. While emulation may be an option, you're probably better of getting an actual PS console.

The PlayStation 1 has a lot to offer, and there is something for everybody. If you don't have a PlayStation 2, then you should defiantly consider getting the PSOne. Actually, if you have the money (and it won't take much at this point) you should defiantly get a PSOne, Nintendo 64, and Sega Saturn since they all have great games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/04, Updated 09/26/05